“I think it's clear to you that it's over. Ours dumped us. At least me." Carles Puigdemont, former Catalan president, writes it in one of the messages to the deputy Toni Comin intercepted by the cameras of the private Spanish TV Telecinco.
The postponement of his re-election was interpreted by the pro-independence leader as a about-face against him.
The messages also read that "the Moncloa plan triumphs" and that "we are living in the last days of republican Catalonia". Puigdemont himself confirmed the authenticity of the messages.
“I am human, there are times when I too doubt – he wrote on Twitter – But I am also the President and I will not hide or back down out of respect, gratitude and commitment to citizens and the country. Go on!".
On the publication of the messages "stolen" from a Telecinco camera, Puigdemont adds: "I am a journalist and I have always believed that there are limits, such as privacy, which must never be violated".
Sóc periodista i semper he entès que hi ha límits, com la privacitat, que mai s'han de violar. Sóc humà i hi ha moments que també jo doubt. També sóc el President i no m'arronsaré ni em faré enrere, per respecte, agraïment i compromís amb els ciutadans i el país. Follow me!
— Carles Puigdemont ? (@KRLS) 31 January 2018
Meanwhile, the Spanish deputy premier Soraya de Saenz Santamaria has asked the president of the Catalan parliament Roger Torrent to start a new round of talks with the political forces and present the name of a new candidate for the presidency of Catalonia alternative to Carles Puigdemont.
"The time has come to publicly assume what has been said many times in private," he said, in an apparent reference to the statements of some members of ERC, Torrent's party, about a possible sacrifice by Puigdemont.
